The Sunday Observer has reviewed a sworn statement from Captain John S Edmondson, commander of Guantanamo's hospital about the force-feeding of 81 detainees on a hunger strike.

New details have emerged of how the growing number of prisoners on hunger strike at Guantánamo Bay are being tied down and force-fed through tubes pushed down their nasal passages into their stomachs to keep them alive. They routinely experience bleeding and nausea, according to a sworn statement by the camp's chief doctor, seen by The Observer.

Edmondson describes the force-feeding procedure and says:

It is painful.... Although 'non-narcotic pain relievers such as ibuprofen are usually sufficient, sometimes stronger drugs,' including opiates such as morphine, have had to be administered.

Miami defense lawyer David Markus was in court today during Jose Padilla's court appearance.

The case was continued until tomorrow at 4pm so Padilla's New York lawyers could be present.

The Financial Times reports today that the U.S. is planning to build a high-security prison in Afghanistan to which it will transfer an unknown number of Guantanamo detainees.

The site selected for the jail is Pol-e-Charki, a rundown prison near Kabul dating from the Soviet era. Some of the base’s prison facilities have recently been refurbished as part of a European Union-financed criminal justice reform programme backed by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

The transfer of prisoners of Afghan origin from Guantánamo to Afghanistan is intended to take pressure off the US administration, which continues to face strong international criticism for holding detainees without trial or other legal recourse.

So they can be tortured in an Afghan-run, U.S. jail and Bush can still say, "We don't torture." As if we should close our eyes because it's not happening on our soil.

The U.S. is currently holding around 500 prisoners at Bagram and Kandahar. This does not include the terror suspects who are in secret jails in Afghanistan.

CNN reports that Jose Padilla is flying to Miami and scheduled to appear yet this afternoon in federal court in Miami.

At least he'll have a lawyer. And an Article III judge presiding over the process.

Update: Talking Dog posts his interview with Padilla lawyer Andrew Patel

Update: Miami Herald reports that Padilla appeared in court after 5 and has a picture.

The Supreme Court ruled today in a one page order (pdf) that the Government may move Jose Padilla from military custody to the civilian custody and bring him to Miami to stand trial on terrorism charges.

The defense alleged the Government's planned move was an attempt to avoid a ruling on the underlying issues in Padilla's habeas case.

Padilla's lawyers don't see this as a total loss.

Donna Newman, told The Associated Press today that she was pleased at the Supreme Court's statement in its one-page order that the broader issues in the case would be weighed "in due course."

Scotusblog has legal analysis of the Order.

Scotusblog reports:

The Bush Administration appears to be preparing to try to scuttle the two most significant pending cases on the legal rights of foreign nationals now being held at the terrorism prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. One of those cases has been granted review by the Supreme Court, the other is awaiting a decision in the D.C. Circuit Court.

President Bush himself signaled this strategy of challenge in a statement last Friday that got little mention in the media, during the holiday lull. His remarks, made at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, came as he signed into law a new defense authorization bill, H.R. 2863, that contains the "Detainee Treatment Act of 2005" as part of its Title X, "Matters Relating to Detainees." (The full text of the President's signing statement can be found here. The discussion of the detainee issue is in the eighth paragraph, which begins "The executive branch shall construe Title X...")

Go on over and read the rest. Marty Lederman has more at Balkanization.

Since Christmas day, the number of detainees at Guantanamo on a hunger strike has increased to 84.

Forty-six detainees at the prison for foreign terrorism suspects at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, joined the protest on the key Christian holiday last Sunday, said Army Lieutenant Colonel Jeremy Martin, a military spokesman.

...Medical personnel were force-feeding 32 of the hunger strikers with plastic tubes inserted into the stomach through the nose, the military said. Asked the purpose of the force-feeding, Martin said: "Because our policy is to preserve life."

If the policy is to preserve life, why is there a death penalty?

Of the approximately 500 inmates at the prison, only 9 have been charged with a crime.

Between 100 and 150 people have been spirited away on Ghost Air and imprisoned in foreign countries pursuant to our secret extraordinary rendition program. The CIA is onlyinvestigating only ten cases of those it believes may have been swept up in error.

Said Tom Malinowski, Washington office director of Human Rights Watch: "I am glad the CIA is investigating the cases that they are aware of, but by definition you are not going to be aware of all such cases, when you have a process designed to avoid judicial safeguards."

He said there is no guarantee that Egypt, Uzbekistan or Syria will release people handed over to them if they turn out to be innocent, and he distrusts promises the U.S. receives that the individuals will not be tortured.

A few weeks ago I wrote that John McCain's torture amendment, included in the defense authorization bill passed by Congress, would be severely undercut by the Levin-Graham-Kyl amendment, which grants a license to use coercive techniques, particularly on detainees at Guantanamo, by denying them access to the courts to seek redress. In other words, the McCain Amendment says one thing and the Levin-Graham-Kyl Amendment another.

The Washington Post today has more:

...the measure awaiting President Bush's signature also would limit the access of detainees held at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to federal courts. And it would allow the military to use confessions elicited by torture when deciding whether a detainee is an enemy combatant.

The ultra conservative Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals showed some backbone today and denied the Government's request to move indicted detainee Jose Padilla to the custody of the Attorney General from military custody. You can read the opinion here. (pdf) Big defeat for Bush.

In a stinging rebuke to the Bush administration, a U.S. appeals court refused on Wednesday to transfer Jose Padilla from U.S. military custody to federal authorities in Florida until the Supreme Court considers his case.

The high court said bringing criminal charges against Padilla in Florida after he had been held by the U.S. military for more than three years as an enemy combatant created the appearance that the government may be attempting to avoid Supreme Court review of the case.

Condi Rice was not a hit on her European vacation. From Hungary's The Index, which calls the CIA's secret prisons concentration camps:

For weeks I've been wondering what the difference is between a Soviet and an American gulag. What's to like about an American concentration camp, or even accept, pardon or explain? Why do they hold terrorists there? How do we know who's a real terrorist if a confession can be beaten out of anyone. And they complied with the law; they just took their subject on a little Egyptian study tour.

Australian Mamdouh Habib was seized in Pakistan in 2001 and during the next four years, shuttled between Egypt, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. He was released in January, 2005. He claimed then he was tortured while in Egypt, and sued the U.S. in federal court to block it from sending him back to Egypt. He reiterated his claims of torture to the BBC today.

Mr Habib told the BBC's World Service that, after his "kidnap" in Pakistan in 2001, he was moved between Egypt, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay until his release at the beginning of 2005. He says he does not know who was holding him, but "I saw Americans.. Australians.. Pakistanis.. and Egyptians.... I was beaten, electric shock... no sleep, injections, brainwashed - unbelievable stuff," he said."

The New York Times reported in February: